Update: Boy, 9, changed story on attempted kidnapping

BILOXI -- Police have confirmed a 9-year-old boy changed his story after falsely reported a man in a red truck had tried to kidnap him as he walked to school.

The child reportedly had run to Popp's Ferry Elementary School after the alleged kidnapping attempt Monday morning on Pass Road, but investigators have confirmed it didn't happen, Detective O'Neal Adams said.

The school called police at 8:03 a.m. and patrol officers and criminal investigators talked to the boy.

The child said he was walking to school in an area of Pass Road determined to be in the 2200 block, Adams said. It's a short distance west of Beauvoir Road and about a half-mile or so from the school campus.

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The boy told police a man who had been in a pickup truck grabbed him from behind and tried to drag him, backwards, but the boy said he kicked and fought and got away.

Based on the boy's description, police had begun searching for a man in a red, four-door pickup truck, possibly a Ford. Police began looking for a man with short, spiked hair believed to weighs about 240 pounds and be 6 feet tall.

Investigators began looking at area surveillance footage for a better description of the suspect and the red truck and they interviewed the boy again, Adams said.

The boy changed his story, Adams said, and told them he saw a suspicious person but had not been approached by anyone.

Police have closed the investigation.

Adams said officers appreciate those who called with information they thought could help.

He had answered questions from the media after the attempted kidnapping was broadcast on police scanners.